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Says McCartney, "We now know that we're not putting children at risk unless we put them in low-quality care, and in fact, the research shows the greater risk to children is having insensitive or depressed parents. Family variables are much more predictive of children's outcomes than child-care variables."

According to McCartney, parents should look first for sensitive caregivers, preferably with fewer children to care for (a low child-to-caregiver ratio helps ensure sensitive care). Then the more education the caregiver has the better, even if it's not in child development (although McCartney says research has shown that's the best option). "Toys and physical facilities are not that important," says McCartney. "I've been in centers where they're lucky to have construction paper, but the child-care teachers are providing sensitive and responsive care, and they're planning developmentally appropriate activities to meet the children's needs."

A Cultural Divide

Last March I met Chiara Bove, an Italian researcher studying infant-mother transitions into day care. Curious, I ask her one day how her research is going, if she is noticing any differences between American and Italian mothers.

I wince at her description, recognizing myself in the hurried mothers rushing, always in a rush. I wonder how Italians take off Band-Aids. Is it a slow, languid easing of the adhesive, or do they yank them in one tug, as Americans do, to make the pain as brief as possible? Probably no one has done research on that. But that is my allegory for day care. A place where every morning you rip the Band-Aid off and every evening, you carefully reapply it.

Family variables are much more predictive of children's outcomes than child-care variables, according to UNH research.

"I think W.C. Fields was right," says Kalinowski, "Americans love childhood but not children. We use that as an excuse to absolve ourselves collectively of our child-care dilemmas."

"For example," he continues, "in our culture we have always felt that children are the province of the family—the overriding interest has been one of the private relationship between parents and children. Other cultures view children as a public responsibility and as a community interest. In our culture, if the child is a latchkey child, home alone for whatever reason, that's 'the family's fault.'"

If the concept of shared day care in our country is so problematic, where should we look for a more healthy tradition?

"Italy is one place to start," suggests Rebecca New, associate professor of early childhood education. Her research for the past two decades has been conducted in diverse communities in Italy, where the care and education of young children is considered both a familial and a social responsibility. Much of her more recent work has focused on cities (such as Reggio Emilia, Parma, San Miniato, and Milano) with reputations for high-quality early childhood programs.

"The concept of day care in Italy is not simply, send mothers to work and children to day care. The centers do not exist in a vacuum, with parents' jobs in one universe and children's care in another," says New. "Caregivers of young children in Italy typically see their roles as sharing the child's care with the parents. The dialogue between caregivers and parents is especially rich. Parental concerns that the child will grow to love another person are discussed routinely as parents and teachers develop relationships of mutual trust and respect. As the children develop effective relationships with other adults and children in the care-giving environment, parents and teachers also grow in their understanding of their respective contributions to the child's development. Children's well-being is thus regarded as both the shared responsibility and the pleasure of the larger community."

Before initiating her research in Italy, New also participated in a Boston-based study of infant care in the late 1970s. Although the findings are now several decades old, some of the issues remain current. For example, when New interviewed mothers in Boston, she tells me the predominant emotion they expressed was guilt. Another was loneliness: American mothers said they often felt as though they were on their own. Employed and stay-at-home mothers both indicated that they felt inadequate and lacked what they regarded as necessary parenting skills, including a sense of humor and lots of patience. And few mothers seemed aware of potential sources of support for their parental roles other than the child's father or, in some cases, neighbors or family members.

A Call to Action

Parents should try to develop a reciprocal and respectful relationship with their child's caregiver or teacher that supports the child and the family, according to Rebecca New.

It doesn't have to be this way for families in the United States. At some point employers and the government must recognize the social and economic benefits of quality day care and respond with support for increased funding and training for child-care workers.

"Some of my students come back after graduating and are frustrated with their profession," says Kerry Kazura, assistant professor of family studies. "Though many become directors of child-care centers, during their initial job searches some graduates find it difficult to locate high-quality child-care positions." Kazura says this illustrates that day-care funding is a critical issue. "If you want to increase the quality you have to increase care providers' pay," Kazura says. "If parents ask me how to find good day care, I say, you need to understand that quality providers are more expensive and worth every penny."

The price for not increasing the quality of day care, Kazura maintains, is children who fall behind at school time. "Children in poor-quality day care aren't prepared when they go into school. If you look at test scores for children in the United States versus Japan, where early education is highly valued, you see a big gap. We have the potential to turn that around by supporting day care." And Kazura believes we have many good reasons to do so in addition to ensuring academic readiness. "We've seen that good-quality day care supports the emotional and social development of young children. Those in good situations learn how to form peer relationships at a younger age and receive more stimulation than children with less diverse experiences. And we know that to a point, the more diverse, high-quality stimulation children receive, the better."

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